Judges 9:50 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Bible Comments

The Death of Abimelech. He went on burning and destroying till from the tower of Thebez (p. 30) a woman threw a mill-stone which crashed through his skull. That he might not be said to have died by a woman's hand he begged his armour-bearer to give him the coup de grace. His death scene is strikingly like that of Saul, in whose person the kingship was revived (2 Samuel 1:9).

Judges 9:56. The closing verses point the moral of a tale which Greek poets would have woven into a tragic drama of fate. In the field of destiny men reap as they have sown.

Judges 9:50-57

50 Then went Abimelech to Thebez, and encamped against Thebez, and took it.

51 But there was a strong tower within the city, and thither fled all the men and women, and all they of the city, and shut it to them, and gat them up to the top of the tower.

52 And Abimelech came unto the tower, and fought against it, and went hard unto the door of the tower to burn it with fire.

53 And a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech's head, and all to brake his skull.

54 Then he called hastily unto the young man his armourbearer, and said unto him, Draw thy sword, and slay me, that men say not of me, A woman slew him. And his young man thrust him through, and he died.

55 And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed every man unto his place.

56 Thus God rendered the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did unto his father, in slaying his seventy brethren:

57 And all the evil of the men of Shechem did God render upon their heads: and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal.